Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.

Friday, June 13, 2014

Mad Cow Fears Lead To Beef Recall In Missouri

More than 4,000 pounds of beef processed at a Missouri plant
have been recalled over fears that they may be contaminated with mad
cow disease. The meat was distributed by Jackson, Missouri's Fruitland
American Meat to restaurants in New York City and Kansas City, Missouri,
as well as a Whole Foods center in Connecticut that distributes
products to the chain's New England stores, CNN reported Friday
morning. The names of the restaurants that received the beef are not
being released by the federal government because they most likely have
not yet served it to consumers, the New York Times reported. Though the beef, which was produced and packaged between
September 2013 and April 2014, was inspected and did not show signs of
mad cow disease -- officially, bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE
-- the company recalled the beef due to what the U.S. Department of
Agriculture called a "remote" risk that it could be transmitted. The
amount of beef was only equal to about four or five steers, according to USA Today, but any mention of mad cow disease in American meat is sure to generate headlines. The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service released a statement about the incident, CNN reported:
"All of these animals received full inspection, both before
and after slaughter, by FSIS personnel and showed no abnormal signs or
symptoms associated with BSE. ... Out of an abundance of caution, FSIS
issued a Class II recall (a remote risk) for product that does not have
paperwork showing that nerve tissue was removed. FSIS and the company
have received no reports of adverse reactions due to consumption of
these products."...more